UNKNOWN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9180, 9 October 1888, Page 3

UNKNOWN.

TO THK- EDITOR. g IR) —In your issue of this morning you state that the Patent Office have informed Mr. Hart Udy that lie "cannot obtain a patent for an invention which has been

exposed to public view." This is hardly correct, and is manificently unfair. Every inventor must satisfy himself of the value and perfection of his invention, and as lonj> as he does so, and does not make a commer cial transaction, and no one else who seea the idea makes a commercial transaction out .of it, he can obtain a patent. The law, protects him still further, by requiring ali who apply for a patent to make a declaration that " they believe the said invention to be a new invention as to public use and exercise thereof . . . and that they are the true and first inventors." If anyone, not being the true and first inventor, triei to obtain lettere patent, and it can bs proved that he pirated the invention, the true inventor can prosecute, although ib ia a very difficult matter to prove. Mr. Hart Udy might still obtain a patent if neither he nor anyone else in New Zealand has derived pecuniary benefit from the idea. The law allows him to have employee labour and paid for it to work out the invention, but he must not have taken a contract for turning the course of the stream. —I am, &c, Allan Tracy. Bennett's Chambers, Queen-street, October 7, 1888.